The Coast Guard broke ground Friday on a $160 million campus for Base Charleston along the Cooper River in North Charleston, The Post and Courier reported.

The 64-acre campus will support the five national security cutters to be based in Charleston, along with their crews and support personnel, the Coast Guard said.

Plans call for a 51,500-square-foot administration building with training and conference space and rooms dedicated to cutter support, the newspaper reported. The current Pier November will be replaced with a pier more than 3 feet taller to better withstand coastal storms, with utilities for five national security cutters and a 90-ton crane for dockside maintenance, said Capt. Neal Armstrong, commanding officer of the Coast Guard’s Facilities Design and Construction Center.

“This Charleston campus will have improved infrastructure that translates into more productive personnel and more efficient operations,” Armstrong said.

The two main contractors are The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. and RQ Construction LLC. Nearly 60 subcontractors will support them, providing work for nearly 900 people during design and construction, the newspaper reported. The new facilities are designed to reach net-zero energy use and a net-zero carbon footprint, Armstrong said.

Demolition has begun for the pier project, which is expected to be finished in late 2026, and construction of the new command and administrative building is set to begin in late 2024, the Coast Guard said.

Base Charleston’s current facilities are about a mile from the new site, so crews must travel to the waterfront to maintain the four national security cutters assigned to Charleston, the newspaper reported. Coast Guard officials expect a fifth within two to three years.

“Base Charleston is one of our most important centers of mission support today and we have a vision to have this base have an even larger role,” said Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, who spoke at the ceremony.

Plans to add five more major cutters would raise the base’s personnel needs from 1,200 to 2,500 people, Capt. Eric Jones, the base’s commanding officer, told the newspaper. The Coast Guard estimates its Charleston-area workforce will double by 2030.

The same day, the Coast Guard formally recognized the greater Charleston area as a Coast Guard community, a designation Congress created in 1998.